Monday, October 12, 2009

El resto de Delhi/ The rest of Delhi











So I was saying Delhi is huge. Yep. We spent the next day going around in a rickshaw seeing more sights. We went to the Lotus Temple- I loved it, shaped as a lotus (doh!), with pools around, and it's a non-denominational temple. We then went down south to Qutab Minar- a mosque in ruins, with a cool minaret/tower. First building we see in ruins in India- we've seen lots of badly maintained and unrenovated buildings, but this is the first time we see something in ruins. After that, we went to the Gandhi Museum- wow! Pleasantly surprising! It was so modern, high-tech (or at least for me...) and interactive, it was amazing. I was impressed!! It was where he spent his last days, and also where he got assessinated, so footsteps mark all the way to the place where he was shot. The next day we had just one more thing we wanted to do in Delhi before leaving- Indira Gandhi's memorial: we also saw the place where she got killed.
We then hang out at a rooftop restaurant (they are everywhere here in India) for a couple of hours, and caught a train to Agra. We arrived late at night, almost 11pm, checked into a hotel with Taj Mahal views- cheap as, but unfortunately the Taj is not lit up at night so it took us some time to even be able to make it out in the night. And off to bed.
Note- just as I was translating this into Spanish, a procession went past in the street, a wedding. Loud music, a float, horses, people danicng in the street!

Como decia, Delhi es inmensa. El dia siguiente nos la pasamos en un rickshaw dando vueltas y viendo mas cosas. Fuimos al Templo del Lotus (impresionante, en forma de Lotus CUA!), con piletas alrededor, es un tenplo no-denominacional (asi se dice? cuando no pertence a ninguna religion en particular, es un templo general). Despues fuimos al sur, a Qutab Minar- una mezquita en ruinas, con una torre/minaret muy buena. Es el primer edificio en ruinas que vemos en India, vimos muchos edificios mal mantenidos y no renovados/conservados, pero esta es la primera vez que vemos algo en ruinas. Despues de ahi fuimos al Museo de Gandhi- wow! Me sorprendio mucho, para bien! Era re moderno, re tecnologico (al menos para mi...) e interactivo, increible. Es donde Gandhi paso sus ultimos dias, y tambien donde fue asesinado, asi que hay huellas que marcan sus ultimos pasos hasta el lugar donde fue asesinado.
HA! Al margen! Recien acaba de pasar una procesion por la calle, un casamiento. Musica a full, una carroza, caballos, gente bailando en las calles.
Bueno, volviendo al tema Delhi. Al dia siguiente nos quedaba una cosa mas que queriamos hacer antes de irnos: fuimos al Memorial de Indira Gandhi: tambien vimos el lugar donde la mataron a ella. Despues pasamos un par de horas en un restaurante en una terraza (estan por todos lados aca en India), y nos tomamos un tren a Agra. Llegamos tarde de noche, casi 11pm. nos buscamos un hotel con vista al Taj Mahal- re barato, pero como el Taj no esta iluminado de noche tardamos un buen rato hasta que lo pudimos ver. Y a dormir.

1 comment: